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The Back-to-School (BTS) season has long been the second biggest consumer spending event of the year, with shoppers spending more on the season than on Mother's Day, Father's Day and Valentine's Day combined according to the National Retail Federation.

As seen in Kantar’s analysis, there’s a robust audience of parents and older students who are buying big during the holiday season – and a significant amount of advertising targeted towards them, with the top ten advertisers alone spending $135.3 million on ads with BTS themes in 2018.

This report examines:

Back-to-school advertising strategies from top retailers like Target, Walmart and Staples

Core timing of the BTS advertising season

How large and small budget advertisers are strategically timing their back-to-school spending

YoY spend changes from top retailers and the reasons behind them

Popular creative themes used in ads

Back-to-college advertisers

Top paid search keyword sponsors for U.S. Google desktop and product listing ads